The UN Human Rights Council has appointed an investigator to focus on human rights abuses in Belarus, amidst “grave concern” over torture allegations and mistreatment of prisoners.
The resolution to appoint a special rapporteur was approved based on the findings of an April report which suggested serious human rights violations since the authoritarian country’s presidential elections in December 2010.
President Alexander Lukashenko’s declared victory sparked a massive protest against alleged vote fraud, in which seven other candidates were among more than 700 to be arrested, with police using violence to disperse protesters.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published the report which detailed a vast number of allegations against political opponents, including beatings, abductions and prison sentences where some were subject to further beatings and torture, denied medical attention or forced to sign confessions.
Belarus’ ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Mikhail Khvostov, told the UNHCR that the EU was pushing its own political agenda.
The local office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe had been closed in Belarus after its observers had criticised the election.
In February the EU recalled all its ambassadors to Belarus, after the EU and Polish ambassadors were asked to leave, in response to a EU vote that added 21 names to an existent list of about 200 Belarusian officials, who are subject to asset freezes and EU travel bans over alleged human rights violations.
Lukashenko has led Belarus since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, using largely Soviet-style controls on the economy and notorious crackdowns on opposition and independent media.
